GCLS

Rachel woke up pre-crack-of-dawn on Friday and headed to Atlanta. She made it to the Sheraton around noon and after some wandering around, she got all checked in for her very first Golden Crown Literary Society Conference. She was feeling pretty lost without Susie by her side, but finally managed to make her way towards the sessions. Thankfully, she ran into Toni in the lobby and spent the rest of the afternoon in some really awesome sessions. She got to see several of her favorite authors and meet some great fans.

Rachel also signed her first autograph, which was a surreal experience since she doesn't even have a book out yet. Connie, her fabulous author liaison, was collecting signatures of all the BSB authors on a pair of blue jeans that will be auctioned off for charity. Rach really loves that her first autograph will forever be across the back of someone's legs. :)


That evening Rach headed off to the official Bold Strokes Books dinner. She was very nervous about being alone with so many famous authors, but there was no need to be. Everyone went out of their way to make her feel welcome, with hugs all around. They all spent the evening getting to know each other and laughing as they told stories of the day they got "the call" from Rad.

There was never a dull moment with skits and awards and videos that made Rachel feel so lucky to be part of such a talented group of women. The Bold Strokes crew was even topped off by the appearance of Ann Bannon, whom Radclyffe declared as an honorary "Boldie." (Rach knows that she is dropping names that most of the blog readers won't recognize, but in her world they are HUGE!) Here is a picture of the two of them at dinner. Rad is in red, and Ann is in blue. Rachel couldn't get a direct shot because she was too chicken!

The next day Rach hit several more sessions, one of which was a presentation by Rad on the evolution of the modern romance novel. Rachel was very inspired and cannot wait to start writing again!

That evening was the Goldie Awards. Rachel had never given much thought to awards ceremony etiquette, so she was very nervous for all the nominees sitting at her table. Once again she was made to feel tremendously proud to be a part of BSB, whose authors took 10 out of the 21 awards! Here is another picture of our fearless leader Rad (who took home several Goldies) sitting between one of Rach's favorite authors Kim Baldwin (right) and Super Friend/Reader Toni (left).

After the awards ceremony, it was time to dance the night away. The fun got under way immediately as Rach was sitting at a mischievous table. Here are few of them now (from the left: Tarsha, Mel, and Toni).

At one point some pranksters stole Georgia Beers' (recent Goldie and Lammy winner) shoes. Rach wanted to see how her shoes stood up to the Lammy sandals and was not surprised when they fell a little short. Notice the prestigious award in the middle of the shoes.

After Georgia figured out that her shoes had been replaced by Rach's, she took her revenge by wearing various items of Rachel's clothing for the rest of the evening. Everyone at the table was teasing that all clothes needed to be returned to their rightful owners before Susie got there, but Rachel couldn't have been more thrilled that Georgia Beers even knew her name!

Susie finally arrived from her long drive from Louisville just as the party was breaking up. She did have a few minutes to meet some of the amazing people Rach had gotten to know over the past few days, and we got to dance the last dance of the evening together.

The next day was our last day in Atlanta, and after hearing the key note speaker, Toni, Tarsha, and Elaine joined us for a trip to Mary Mac's because it's just not a trip to the ATL without it. We loaded up on southern delicacies and back rubs from Miss Jo Carter. Rach also got cooled off by a tall class of sweet tea dumped right in her lap. Maybe the waitress could tell see was still flushed from the night before (see previous picture). We had such a great time that it was hard to leave, but we are already planning a trip to North Carolina for later in the summer in the hopes of seeing Toni and Tarsha as well as Big Papi again.